Church Planter Gathers, Scatters

“Gathering, Scattering, Place, and Grace” – this is the motto church planter Jana Koh lives by.

This approach to church planting, taken from Hebrews 10:23-25, was inspired by conversations she was having with local Canadians, from getting to know the area of North Oshawa, Ont., and from of her own reading and training for being a church planter.

Koh, an American, and her husband Jeremy, a Malaysian, had never lived in Canada before, so their first step was simply putting themselves out there, and being “a good neighbour.”

This started with simple conversation. One woman Koh met, Rebecca, was an award-winning digital market strategist whose husband had been trained by Jeremy Koh at the gym.

When Jana spoke to her about what she was doing, “Rebecca was almost in tears,” Jana said. “She had never heard the church talked about like this before.”

As more conversations like this one began to generate interest in her church, Koh began to think about ways to gather in her new community. Through neighbourhood groups and events, she has involved almost every household.

Alongside gathering, she sees scattering as the way a church goes out into different parts of the community and finds new ways to connect with people.

For Jana Koh, it’s important to know the struggles and needs of a place in order to know how to properly scatter. Families in her neighbourhood struggle with financial pressure, poverty, drug use, and desperation. That’s why they need grace and the hope from Hebrews 10.